Well-Known Member

I hot an xl call to a air conditioner service company. Turned out my passenger was a service tech that had just been fired. The company paid to take the guy and all his tools home. I had to fold down the third row and the second row of seats. They lined my cargo area with a protective drop cloth and loaded it up

I felt bad for the guy but meh got on the phone and had a me job before he got home

I wasn’t happy when the trip began, but it had a happy ending

I’d do it again

The guy at Home Depot that wanted to load several bags of landscaping stones, not so much. I pointed out the trucks Home Depot had for rent and cancelled

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

I've made some mistakes in this regard. Once I helped a student with a fair bit of stuff (desktop computers, lamps, a couple suitcases) move back to a dorm room in Sheridan College. It all fit safely and damage free into my car, but upon arrival at the college, he lived on the 5th floor, there were three loads, and the elevator was slow. It tooks probably 15 minutes to get all his stuff to his room after I dropped him off. $15 tip helped, but NEVER AGAIN.

Also, 3am, driving in Scarborough, Ontario, and I get a ping, imediately followed by a phone call from PAX.

pax: "Can you take a Queen Sized Matress?"
me: "No sir, I'm driving a small hatchback. Perhaps a Moving Van, or at the very least, XL"
pax: "I can tie it down to the roof"
me: "This isn't happening sir. Have a nice night."

Pax cancels This exchange took long enough (>2min) for me to get the $5 cancel fee, so also a mild win. Pax was nice enough to call and give me the heads up. This is probably rare.

Well-Known Member

A few months ago I got a ping to do a pick-up at NAPA Auto Parts. Pull into the parking lot and a NAPA employee is standing there with a box. Figured I was taking him home or something. He sets the box in my seat and says thanks the guy is waiting for me. Almost cancelled but hey it was a slow day. Took the part 14 miles and got a decent tip. Added bonus it put into a more productive area for the rest of the day. I guess for me I have no hard set rule. If it is not an over the top request I'll do it.

Make sure you also submit a "returned item" request to get an additional $15. The item doesn't have to be returned to any specific location or person. It just has to be given back in a way that satisfies the customer. If that's giving it to another person at another location, then that's a successful returned item, and $15.

Well-Known Member

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^THIS, and, customers almost NEVER tip on these kinds of trips^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

People have used taxicabs as discount moving and hauling service for years. When I did drive a station waggon, I used to get more of these than usual. What I did for moving or hauling jobs then, and do still (although I do not have a station waggon or a van, now), is look at the stuff, let the customer know up front that this is outside the usual fare structure. If they even look like they are thinking about flinching, I decline the job. I then quote a price. I add "do not even think about asking for a receipt". If any of that is greeted with anything less than ecstatic enthusiasm, I decline the trip.

I have seen cab drivers get licence suspensions for overcharging on this kind of job.

If I am driving the Uber car that day, it is a different story. I will look at the stuff. I will think of a figure. I will then tell the customer simply "You do understand that this requires more than a little of my time and trouble. Uber does not pay me very much for either." If that does not produce an immediate cash tip, it is Cancellation Station.

I will never come out and tell an Uber customer that I expect a cash tip. Too many of these customers are trying to hustle a free ride out of Uber as it is. They will make up all sorts of OOM-WAH-WAH about a driver to get a free ride. If you come right out and tell a customer
that you expect a cash tip, you are giving them a blank cheque to hustle Uber and have you de-activated. All that they need do is send a nastygram to Uber and state "Driver demanded cash". Uber then de-activates the driver and gives the complainant all sorts of free rides. This is also why you never mention cash on a Lost and Found. If the customer does not offer the cash tip on the Lost and Found, I tell him that he can get it from the police.

A few months ago I got a ping to do a pick-up at NAPA Auto Parts. Pull into the parking lot and a NAPA employee is standing there with a box. He sets the box in my seat and says thanks the guy is waiting for me. Took the part 14 miles and got a decent tip.

I have gotten these in both the cab and Uber car. I will do it if I can have the telephone number at the other end. Further, I inform the consignor that he must call the consignee and tell him to be waiting for me. Half the time, of course, the consignee is not out there waiting, as drivers are considered to be people of no consequence. This is why I want the telephone number. I make it clear to the consignor that under no circumstances will I leave my vehicle, as I do not like parking summonses. The only thing that the District of Columbia local government does with any shred of efficiency is issue parking and nastycam summonses.

I get a ping to a Rite Aid store. As I pull up a young woman approaches from the sidewalk in front of the store. She's carrying a small shopping bag and nothing more. Oh well......surely a one mile run but whatever, let's get it over with. As I approach she smiles and waves her phone at me. Then she motions to a young man standing about 50 feet away, who begins walking towards me carrying a large wrapped Christmas tree.

"Where da hell do you think that's going???"

"On top of your car? You don't have to worry, the store employees help loading the tree and tying it down. You don't even have to get out of your car."

Another Ant told me on Black Friday he let a pax load up his Prius with a whole brand new computer system in boxes. When the pax got home and slid one of the boxes out of the back seat, one of those big copper industrial staples was partially loose on the bottom of the box and sliced a section of his back seat.

It took me one time, only, to learn to check those kinds of boxes. This was many years back. The customer actually gave me a nice tip. I did not notice it until a customer pointed it out to me the next day. As soon as I saw it, I knew how it got there. Fortunately, there was a shop where they would patch it. Still, it ate the tip, the fare and then some. After that, if a box like that must go on one of the seats, I check the staples and it goes on an comes off ever-so-lightly-and-politely. I have had customers want to handle those things as would a dock worker. When I ask them if they are going to pay to patch the tear in the seat, they shut up. I have worked on more than one loading dock and, I drove a truck in Canada. "Fragile" means "drop only four times instead of the usual seven". "Do not drop" means "Do not drop-kick more than fifty feet at a time". "This side up" means "Any side BUT this one up". "Do not stack more than three high" means "Stack AT LEAST five high".

Well-Known Member

Speaking of gas-cans, I picked up a fellow ant one night who’s car ran out of gas…with a pax on the back seat. Buddy didn’t exactly seem like the brightest bulb in the box. Anyway, I took pity on him and carried him to a gas-station to get a gallon and back to his car.

I totally agree. The entitlement of pax nowadays blows me away. Instead of being a grown up 35+ year old adult that she was, and rent a U-Haul or Home Depot pick up truck for an hour, she called an Uber. Even then, instead of an Uber XL, she chose a X. ( which in 80% of the time in Seattle, that would be a Prius.) Even after that when she saw me pull in, and saw the quality and size of my car, she thought this was an option.

This is the car she thought she was going to put a tree on:

The worst part is.....I bet some desperate Ant came right after me and strapped that Christmas tree to the roof of his Prius, only to then probably go 1.5 miles down the road. Oh its Ok though, I bet she promised to tip in the app.

Well-Known Member

Yeah, but they'd have to pay like $3 a minute wait time for the loading and unloading at both ends of the trip. If they implement that, they might as well go all the way and let us bill for drive thrus and grocery shopping.

Well-Known Member

The only time I hauled something was a TV on Superbowl Sunday ... pax upgraded to Lux and gave me $100 tip in advance ... I felt sorry for him because the previous 5 XL/SUV canceled on him. It was a nice long 20 mile ride on Lux (plus I had the crisp Ben) ... got to his house and helped him carry in the TV ... he gave me 5x$20 tip. *so unless someone is stepping up like this pax, no way Jose.